Basketball: Petoskey topples previously unbeaten Ramblers

A solid start followed by a strong finish were key ingredients for the Petoskey High School girls' basketball team on Tuesday.

Fueled by an impressive first quarter as well as some clutch free throw shooting late in the fourth, the Northmen handed Boyne City its first loss of the season, 54-48, at the Petoskey High School gym.

The Northmen improved to 4-2 overall, while the Ramblers fell to 5-1.

"I'm excited, that's a big win for us," first-year Petoskey coach Nelson Greenier said. "Boyne City is a good team and you don't get to 5-0 beating nobody. They have some good players, but we played well down the stretch and took care of the ball.

"We slowed things down and played to our pace and so far, it's been working for us."

Before slowing things down offensively, the Northmen got off to a fast start as they took a 17-4 lead after the opening quarter.

Advertisement

"We knocked down some shots early and got some putbacks and when they pressured us, we played more up tempo and got the ball up the floor," Greenier said. "We definitely controlled the tempo of the game and used that to our advantage."

Petoskey closed the second quarter with a 6-2 run to take a 29-19 cushion into the lockerroom. The lead hovered around the 10-point mark until the Ramblers trimmed it to 50-46 after back-to-back 3-pointers by Haili Friedrich and Natashe Bell with just over two minutes to play.

"We got it to within four points and we got it close, but we couldn't catch a break and they (the Northmen) were making their free throws," Boyne City coach Scott Hausler said. "They deserve a lot of credit."

With 26 seconds left, Rosinski drew a foul and connected on a pair of free throws to make it 52-46 before Tracey Haderer added two more free throws with 18 seconds remaining to close the scoring at 54-48.

"Tracey did a nice job coming off the bench and she always seems to give us a spark," Greenier said.

The Northmen shot 15-of-29 from the line, while Boyne City was 10-of-25.

"We knocked down some free throws at the end in some key situations and I've stressed how important free throws are," Greenier said. "I was happy that we took care of the ball in a physical game."

For the Northmen, Tori Premo finished with a game-high 13 points and 10 rebounds, Rosinski had 12 points, Tricia Lamberti had eight points and eight rebounds, Andrea Lightfoot added eight points and eight rebounds, Megan Sipe had six points and Kelsie August dished out six assists.

"Boyne City is a great rebounding team and our goal was to beat them on the boards and we went hard to the glass," Greenier said. "We outrebounded them 40-30 and that was key for us."

For the Ramblers, Holly Stanek finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and four steals, while Clemens added 10 points and Friedrich, nine rebounds.

"It was a tough game for us," Hausler said. "I told the girls after the game to keep their chins up. A good sign of a good team is how they respond after a game like this and I don't want to see any long faces.

"Give Petoskey credit. They were playing well and they hustled, they rebounded well and did a good job."